A “snow chain” is attached to the tire of an automobile to provide traction between the tire and road when the road is covered with ice or snow. FIG. 2 (prior art) shows the typical “snow chain” 11, stretched out on the ground. There are shown two long lengths of “side” chains 12, side by side and parallel to one another with several short lengths of “linking” chain 14, each linking chain 14 having one end attached to one side chain 12 and another end attached to the other side chain 12 so that the snow chain 16 is a chain ladder.
One such snow chain is typically attached to each one tire, respectively when driving during icy conditions. The snow chain is removed when the ice/snow is gone in order to avoid damage to the tire such as can occur when the vehicle with snow chains is driven over bare concrete. It is therefore a matter of great convenience that the driver be enabled to attach and remove the snow chains easily in unfavorable weather conditions.
“Snow chains” are attached to the tire of an automobile by laying a snow chain in front of each tire and then driving the automobile forward so that each wheel is positioned over a respective snow chain.
Then the driver wraps each snow chain around the respective wheel and fastens the ends of each snow chain together thereby securing the snow chain on the wheel.
This is a most tedious operation since each snow chain tends to “fall off the wheel” unless the snow chain is balanced on the respective wheel very carefully. For this reason, attachment of the snow chain to the wheel is most conveniently accomplished when two people perform the attachment operation—one person holding the ends of the snow chain in position while the other person attaches fasteners that hold the ends of the snow chain together.
Obviously, the job of attaching snow chains is exacerbated when the driver attempts to mount the snow chain by himself.